Her Moonlit Gamble (2 page)

First kiss. Like there would ever be one of those.

"Nope."

She adjusted her top. "You didn't look at my boobs."

He grinned. "Maybe."

The glare she shot him was withering.
 

"Jos, we're on a public beach. You really think I would have snuck a peek?"

She flicked her gaze to his shorts. "What got that going?"

Just as he'd tried to forget she had nipples, he tried to forget he had a dick when he was around her. Looks like that weren't helping his arousal abate. "Morning," he said shortly. "Want to go for a swim?" Without waiting for an answer, he hopped to his feet and headed for the waves.

***

Joslyn's head was still fuzzy three hours later after flying to the Big Island where they planned to spend a couple of nights. After they checked into the hotel, in the suite they'd be sharing, Andrew had hustled her downstairs to meet the shuttle that would take them to the rainforest.

Now Andrew helped her strap into her zip-lining harness, his hands completely businesslike on her body as he made sure the thing fit her thighs comfortably, the straps buckled just right below her breasts. She snapped on her helmet, feeling like it gave her another layer against her errant thoughts about him.

What had happened last night? She remembered sitting on the beach, remembered passing the bottle back and forth, remembered moving closer, but didn't remember being close enough to fall asleep in his arms. And either he was lying about not being drunk or he hadn't tried to wake her to take her back to the hotel. Why wouldn't he have, if he'd only had a couple of drinks like he'd said?

Maybe best not to think about motivations when his hands were on her body, no matter the reason.
 

Finally he declared her secure. The zip-line instructor double checked as Andrew got into his harness beside her.
 

"Ready for this?"Andrew asked.

She looked down, out across the canopy of the Hawaiian rain forest, which she'd soon be flying over. She didn't really get the appeal, but he was so excited about it--every line of his body telegraphed that. He'd done so much for her, she couldn't deny him. Plus, damn, he was so serious and capable as he worked with the guides. Hearing him use words like "aerial runaway" and "deceleration" was kind of sexy.

Besides, she'd agreed to do this with him, so she nodded and launched herself off the platform.

Her stomach dropped to her knees for a moment at the first drop, but then she was skimming over the tops of trees, watching birds take off beneath her, following their flight to the sky. Wind whipped past her head, almost taking Andrew's words with it.

"What?"

"Turn around," he shouted, pointing beneath them.

And then she saw it, water flowing over a rocky bed in a depressed area, then tumbling in a gorgeous waterfall into the valley below. She could hardly catch her breath at the beauty, and looked across the sky at Andrew, who was holding his video camera in that direction but grinning at her.

Before she knew it, they'd reached the next tower and the guide was unhooking her from one line to connect her to the next.

"Doing okay?" Andrew asked as he hoisted himself up for the guide to unhook him. "You should have seen your face."

"Was it my 'oh shit' face?"

"Nah, it was your--" He shook his head. "I've never actually seen that expression on your face before. Awe, I guess."

"It was pretty fantastic."

"More to see," he promised as the guide made sure he was secure and gave them the go-ahead to take off again.

This time she watched the ocean in the distance, the sky above, gripping onto the handle as she leaned back. She couldn't believe she'd been afraid to try this. The wind, the speed, everything took her worries and blew them behind her. When they reached the last platform and Andrew helped her out of her harness, she threw her arms around him.
 

"Thank you," she murmured, and pulled away just before he could wrap his arms around her.

CHAPTER TWO

They'd gotten a suite on the big island, two rooms and a shared living and bathroom, because Max, Elizabeth's surfer who was a tour guide on the side, had helped them get a deal. They had a balcony with a view of the beach and bay beyond. Probably, Andrew reasoned, they shouldn't go back to the beach after last night.
 

"I'm starving," Joslyn announced, stepping out of the bathroom, her hair wet, one of those long sundresses clinging to her still-damp body. "Take a fast shower and feed me."

"You can order room service, you know." He waved a hand toward the phone as he eased past her. "This place is supposed to have great food."

"I know, but I want to go out. Like, to civilization."

He stopped in the doorway of the bathroom and stared. "You think this place is uncivilized?"

"You know what I mean. After being out on the mountain." She walked to the window and looked out over the bay. "It seems quieter here than on Oahu."

"Yep." He joined her at the window. She smelled so good, like sunscreen and some kind of fruit, and he resisted the urge to move closer, to touch her hair that dripped onto the olive skin of her shoulders. He curled his fingers in the curtain instead. "Glad we came here after the craziness of the wedding."

She turned to look at him, arms folded beneath her breasts. Man, did she know what a delicious picture she presented? Probably so. She'd flirted with men as long as he'd known her. She knew what affected them. So...why was she trying her tricks on him? He swallowed and met her gaze.
 

"You don't think zip-lining, volcano tours and night-time diving with manta rays is craziness."

He grinned and swatted her with his towel. "I call that fun." He backed toward the bathroom. "I'll take that shower now."

Was it his imagination, or did she blush?

***

Andrew rested his head against the tile and let the water flow over him. For months he'd been looking forward to this, getting out of the service, seeing Joslyn, getting to Hawaii with nothing to think about by fun. He hadn't expected sex to take over his thoughts--worse, sex with his best friend.
 

He had been in love with her as long as he could remember. Joslyn was cute and curvy, and he could about fit her in his pocket, which made him feel big and very overprotective of her. When they'd been in high school, he'd wanted nothing more than to get into her pants. It had hurt to see her go out with other guys, knowing they got to kiss her and touch her and maybe more.
 

But when her parents and brother had been killed in a car accident, her world had fallen apart, and she'd turned to him. She'd already been eighteen, but still in high school, so she'd moved in with his family. He'd spent lots of night in her bedroom holding her while she cried, feeling guilty as hell for going to bed with a hard-on.
 

Later, she'd brought him into her room while she talked about her plans for college, her plans to be a trauma nurse. She had come back to life while he watched, while he hoped she would turn to him in more ways than one, but she never did, and he never made a move, letting her walk away from him that fall to go to school, and he signed up for the military.

He was blessed that she kept in contact with him, that she made time for him in her busy life whenever he had leave. He had Army buddies, sure, but she was still his best friend. Now he was out and ready to start his life as close to her as possible. Whether she'd see him as anything other than her buddy, he didn't know.

What he did know was that she'd kill him if he didn't get her to dinner.
 

He shut off the water and straightened.
 

He dried off, willing his hardening cock to go down, then realized he'd forgotten to bring clean clothes into the bathroom. He eyed his dusty, sweaty shorts and underwear heaped on the floor and dismissed the idea of putting them on, even for the time it took to get to his room. Instead, he wrapped the towel around his waist and tucked it in, then opened the door.
 

Joslyn was on the couch flipping through a magazine. She looked up and her eyes widened, slid down his body like a caress, and landed on the tenting of the towel. Damn, he thought he'd gotten that under control. He thought she would be embarrassed and look away. Hell, he should have stepped back into the bathroom, or hustled into his bedroom, but he just stood there and let her look at him.
 

"It ain't going to go away if you keep looking at it like that," he said, his voice rusty.

"Do you need to go--take care of it?"

Like he could do that, knowing she was on the other side of the door, knowing what he was doing. He wished he'd never told her they could talk about everything. Their conversation usually didn't drift to sex, but when it did...

"It'll calm down." He hoped. If she didn't look about it or talk about it anymore. He broke the stand-off and headed toward his bedroom, but when he looked over his shoulder, she was still watching him.

***

Joslyn's nerves danced along the outside of her skin as she sat across from him at the hotel's patio restaurant. He'd touched the small of her back as they'd walked to the table, which set her blood on fire. As she looked at him, all she could see was the towel. And the delicious cut of muscles above it, like a damned arrow pointing to his erection, which, as she'd noticed on the beach this morning, was damned impressive.

What she wanted to know but was afraid to ask, was she the reason for the, er, towel, or was he thinking of someone else? She didn't know which answer she feared to hear.
 

Her thoughts drifted to The Kiss, the one and only time they'd kissed, in high school. It was before her parents died, and they'd been at a party. They'd been good friends, but not as close as they later became. Some of their friends didn't believe a boy and girl could be friends, and asked if there wasn't always underlying sexual tension. Joslyn had offered to prove it by kissing him in front of everyone. She'd grabbed his arms and stretched way up, because even then he'd towered over her. She'd touched her lips to his, found his dry and firm. Her friends had declared that no kiss, and wanted some tongue. She'd reached up again, and his hands went to her waist as she slanted her mouth over his and touched her tongue to his.

Something had jolted between them, and she'd felt him tremble all over, but she managed to pull back and play it off like nothing.

A week later, her life turned upside down and she was no longer thinking about the kiss, but clinging to Andrew's friendship, the only lifeline she had.

She wondered what it would be like to kiss him now that they both knew what they were doing.

Thankfully, their table overlooked the pool and she could avoid looking at him as she watched people play below.
 

"Want to go swimming later?" he asked, following her gaze.

"Maybe." She was pretty sure she'd just replace the bathing suit with a towel. "What time is the helicopter tour?" Tomorrow they were flying over Mount Kilauea and hiking in the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
 

"I booked us at ten, at the Kona airport. I thought about going earlier, so it'll be cooler when we hike, but ten's plenty early. I have the hotel packing us some lunches, too."
 

How could he act so normal after the towel incident? He'd blushed when she was looking at him--when she couldn't stop looking at him and wondering. But now he seemed to have forgotten all about it.
 

She sipped her mojito and toyed with her steamed vegetables. All she could think about was him touching her, tossing the towel aside and driving into her. She was wet just thinking about what he'd feel like over her, inside her, all that bare skin, hers to kiss, the clean outdoorsy scent of him surrounding them.
 

God, this was her best friend. He'd gotten her through the worst days of her life, and sex would just fuck up everything. She couldn't risk it.

But why oh why hadn't she packed her vibrator?

"You gonna eat that?" he asked, pointing at the tenderloin on the side of her plate.

Without a word, she speared it and placed it on his plate.

***

An hour later, she sat on the edge of the pool while he cut through the water, strong and sure. She'd been afraid of the intimacy of going swimming, but, well, the pool was so crowded, even late in the evening, intimacy was not a problem. In fact, she was not alone in watching Andrew swim. When he popped out of the water on the other side of the pool, a group of three women, tall, stunning, sexy women in bikinis, moved to talk to him, dangling their legs in the water near his head. Damn, did that one just part her legs? Hussy!
 

Again, Joslyn's emotions were in turmoil. If he brought one--or all three of them--back to the hotel room, she'd be able to hear everything. She'd run the risk of encountering them in the bathroom or living area. But if he'd been in his own room, he might be more likely to bring them back.

One of the women touched her toe to Andrew's shoulder and he grinned. When had his grin gotten so damned sexy, so full of wicked promise? Damn him to hell for making her feel jealous. She never felt jealous.
 

Part of her wanted to slide into the pool and stake a claim on him, but that wasn't what friends did. Friends did not cock-block. If he wanted to get laid three ways from Sunday, she should let him.

She rose from the edge of the pool and headed toward the bar.
 

"Hey! Joslyn! Where you going?"

His shout surprised her and she turned to see him waving. She was pretty sure every female in the vicinity watched as he sliced through the water toward her. She glanced over his shoulder to see the three mermaids looking disgruntled.

"To get a drink." She inclined her head toward the nearby crowded bar.

He pulled himself out of the pool in one graceful move and trotted after her, leaving a dripping trail behind him, and she didn't mean from the pool water.